If the lift doors seal shut and the backup power fails, does your real identity surface, or do you just sit there, content in your modern apathy? Eloise Snape’s world premiere of The Elevator at the Ensemble Theatre zeroes in on this exact psychological crossroads. An algorithmic hostage satire that strips back the gloss of corporate feminism and the trap of relentless productivity, forcing polished PR spin to crash into reality.

The immediate crisis is a high-stakes tech panic. Margot, the fierce CEO of tech firm Eco Engines, is rushing to a 48th-floor boardroom to salvage a catastrophe after one of her company’s driverless autonomous cars goes rogue and hits a pedestrian. Accompanied by her anxiety ridden, crisis communications manager and a straight-talking building janitor, this petri dish of class, rank and accountability finds their ascent completely halted by the building’s malfunctioning, AI-operated elevator.

This trapped-in-a-lift premise creates instant, crackling friction. Snape’s dialogue snaps back and forth with rhythm, precision and satirical velocity, capturing the exact absurdity of modern corporate jargon and office politics. It’s the ultimate metaphor for getting stuck on the professional ladder, but the real momentum builds when individual masks and institutional labels drop, leaving three distinct souls navigating a shared moral crisis.

Kelsey Lee’s sleek set and lighting design, along with smart sound design and ambience by Daniel Herten, keep the single-setting claustrophobia visually engaging, turning a gleaming retro orange elevator into a dynamic pressure cooker. Voiced with comic perfection by Johnny Nasser, this all-powerful mechanical deity ‘TAURUS’ acts as a glitching Alexa, spouting random, quirky platitudes and tech-bro jargon while the humans inside unravel.

Under Anthea Williams’ astute direction, the cast delivers high-energy performances showcasing an absurdist wit that distils everyday corporate dread into incisive comedy. The setup thrives on sharp situational ironies perfectly embodied by this three-strong ensemble. Leeanna Walsman is superb, as cool headed CEO Margot, whose one-day postpartum body physically leaks while she scrambles to handle an internal corporate leak. 

Shirong Wu is agonizingly funny as Alison, turning a flailing people-pleaser into a drone blind to choice, while mining acute discomfort and hyperventilating panic for maximum comedic impact. Di Adams completes the toxic triangle with terrific, grounded energy and deadpan quips. Ollie is the ultimate working-class truth-teller, fully aware of the corrupt system, yet practical enough to manipulate its gears for her own gain.

Snape consciously widens the lens from here, shifting into a grander style of Williamson-esque social commentary that targets modern workplace politics, exposing a broken system and the global impact of the hollow deceit of corporate greenwashing. She highlights the heavy irony of our technological isolation – the monstrous rise of AI and how the very systems we build to achieve total control are precisely what leave us powerless and disconnected when the machinery fails.

However, The Elevator punches hardest when PR rhetoric and institutional commentary drop away, to deliver a compellingly ironic study of individualism.While one might be wary of the cliché of punishing the career woman for her ambition, Snape offers a more pragmatic view: women are frequently handed leadership positions only at moments of extreme institutional crisis, left to clean up systemic messes while navigating a landscape built for them to fail. Crucially, these three women don’t waste time talking about men or debating the abstract nature of womanhood; they just talk about their own position and survival. Women are just as susceptible to the corporate machine, and that in this system, everyone has a price.

While TAURUS is perfectly happy to spout off hollow platitudes, The Elevator swerves neatly away from easy empowerment tropes. A furiously intelligent, fiercely funny evening of theatre that shreds institutional life with mischievous satirical glee, Ensemble Theatre delivers a spin-stripping ride that will be either highly therapeutic or deeply triggering for anyone currently exhausted by the digital rat race. Shift your paradigms accordingly!

The Elevator plays at the Ensemble Theatre until 18 October 2026. For further details see: https://www.ensemble.com.au/shows/the-elevator/

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